Nancy Pelosi’s Legacy of Debt

HNancy Pelosi is the official speaker You have been evicted After two decades of directing the political agenda for House Democrats, I was relieved from leadership last week

There’s no denying the historic nature of the California lawmaker’s tenure, whose leadership began in 2002 when she became the first woman elected House minority whip. She’d go on to take up the gavel of House speaker twice (from 2007–2011 and 2019–2023), making her the only female House speaker in history and One of a handful Non-consecutive terms may be served.

As far as political careers go, Pelosi’s has been a clear success. Journalists write “a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/03/us/politics/nancy-pelosi.html”>hagiographic portraits of her career, one aspect of Pelosi’s legacy has received little attention: the massive federal debt accumulated since she ascended to leadership in Washington.

In 2003, when Pelosi was elected minority leader, the national debt was greatly reduced. At $6.2 trillion. When she turns over the speaker’s gavel, the national debt Will be $31.5 trillion. This means that approximately 80 percent of all U.S. debt was accumulated since Pelosi rose to the top of Congress.

However, this does not mean that Pelosi is the only one responsible for the current debt crisis in the United States. The list of people to blame includes both major political parties.

That said, it’s difficult to find a single politician in either party who bears more responsibility than Pelosi. She was a leader for years. Talked a difficult game About pay-as you-go rules in Congress, which were supposed to prevent new deficit spending. However, the U.S. government amassed an unprecedented amount of deficit expenditures under her watch.

The process was aided by Pelosi’s Refusal of floor amendments By her embrace Bills for omnibus transportation are huge It was not possible for congressional members to review this document.

“No other Speaker, President, or Senate Majority Leader, can even come close to her indubitable record of deficit spending,” Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie It is possible to contend.

This is something that many progressives will not admit to. They’ll shrug off the anti-democratic process. They’ll argue that passing Obamacare was a moral imperative and blame the debt on the government’s 20-year excursion in Afghanistan (a war Pelosi Voted for). They’ll decry Republican tax cuts “for the rich.”

This is to be expected. Meanwhile, the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio has reached 122 percentHigher than the maximum sustainable levelhttps://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2011/080511.pdf”>according To Economists from the International Monetary Fund

Despite the staggering numbers (and historical inflation), Washington continues to be a spending powerhouse.

Then there’s the $1.7 trillion Many are pushing for the Omnibus Bill to be passed recently. “cancel” student-loan debts, a policy Pelosi Support (though she did throw a wrench into the works by admitting the president doesn’t have the authority unilaterally to pass it). Medicare for All and universal preschool education are still high-priority goals. (READ MORE: Release Pelosi’s Tax Returns)

That Democrats have no serious plan to pay for any of this doesn’t seem to bother them. They seem content to pass on the bills to future generations. This is not socialism in the traditional sense, but it calls to mind French economist Frédéric Bastiat’s quip That “the state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.”

The costs of these policies may not be apparent to Americans, but they exist. The government spends currently $400 billion It costs approximately $2,000 per year to finance interest on the debt. These are the costs Expected By 2032, it will be $1.2 trillion annually

“Within 10 years the federal government will spend more on interest costs than it has historically spent on R&D, infrastructure, and education combined,” Researchers at the Peter G. Peterson Foundationhttps://www.pgpf.org/blog/2022/05/interest-costs-on-the-national-debt-set-to-reach-historic-highs-in-the-next-decade”>concluded.

Americans were warned.

George Washington Warning! About the destructive nature and dangers of debt, he was joined at the event by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Also known as public debt “the greatest of the dangers to be feared.”

Pelosi’s problem is now solved. She’s riding off into the sunset A very wealthy woman.

We don’t know how future historians will view the former speaker’s tenure, but it’s safe to say that the founders would have viewed her legacy as a disaster.

Jonathan Miltimore manages FEE.org. His writing/reporting is the subject of articles in Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, ForbesFox News, and Star Tribune.

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